


An unexpected moment with an even more suprising friend

by GlytheSector



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen, cross-faction cooperation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 05:59:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4252032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlytheSector/pseuds/GlytheSector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tunnel full of rakghouls in the cesspit of Tatooine wouldn't have been a place Chec would have picked as a likely spot for some quiet conversation. But in a life full of such moments squeezed in around the chaos she probably shouldn't be so surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An unexpected moment with an even more suprising friend

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the Imperial agent class story. Vague smuggler spoilers referenced. Shadow of Revan and Ziost spoilers.

She’d had a great deal of different names over the years, building up quite the eclectic mix of code names, core names and family names. But the agent that those most close to her simply referred to as Chec had rarely had such a number of them applied to her in such a short space of time. Nor was it usual for all the names to be so vulgar. She could hardly blame the frightened locals of Tatooine for their lack of manners. She couldn’t say that, in their shoes, with more and more of their family and friends falling to the Rakghoul infection by the hour that she would act the same. Standard chiss protocols for situations like the one she currently found herself in would have managed the situation and the populace rather better in her opinion. But their chaotic behaviour was hardly atypical of most of the other denizens of the galaxy that she’d met in the strange times since she’d left Csilla. It was actually rather endearing most of the time. Just not when she was being cussed out by a frightened human as she tried to inoculate his incessantly wriggling daughter. Honestly, she preferred facing down the rakghouls themselves. At least when they spit in your face it was socially acceptable to punch them back.

Something that Kaliyo was still snorting with laughter about as they finally re-entered the safe zone perimeter by the spike entrance. “I’m just saying Agent, if you were going to drop the knife and start hitting people, you should have done it sooner. I would have paid good money to see you clock Jadus one back in the day.”

Chec sighed as she wiped her knife down. The rattataki was truly relentless when she started. “That would hardly have been a fair deal for me, seeing as I’d have been unable to collect your credits once I was a smouldering corpse.”

Kaliyo was also a master at smiling at the most appalling things. “Like I said. Would’ve been a great deal for me.”

Someday Chec would learn to not get drawn into these conversations. “Which is exactly why I preferred to talk that monster into fleeing for the hyperlanes over having to fight him. That, and the fact that other than said conversation of course, I’d say not getting turned into a smear on the ground is currently my highest achievement.” And of course dismantling the Star cabal. But even now she didn’t talk about them where others could hear. “I’d rather like to keep things that way.”

“Ugh, you really are no fun.” Kaliyo pouted as she holstered her rifle.

“So you keep reminding me.” She didn’t bother saying “but who would you harass with me dead?” She knew by now the other woman would just laugh and make a pithy remark about there being more fish in the sea. And then Chec’s stomach would churn and she’d get stuck in yet another spiral of questioning whether she was more terrified at the prospect of Kaliyo never leaving, or of her vanishing one day and the knowledge that someday she’d be back with a new friend to put a rather more permanent end to their “old friendship”. She might be terrible at not responding when Kaliyo baited her but some battles she’d learned to stay far, far away from.

She just shook her head at herself as Kaliyo walked away, probably to continue her earlier investigation into procuring herself one of the T.H.O.R.N specialist’s rifles. Witty banter might be better than the tense silences that had filled the ship after the fiasco on Hutta, but someday she’d have enough time and energy to work out what to do about Kaliyo. It would be easiest, though not _that_ easy just to kill her. But then, that was true of a lot of people Chec had met in her turbulent intelligence career. If she hadn’t started killing for convenience before, she certainly wouldn’t start now. Not for Kaliyo. If such an attempt failed Kaliyo would probably find it amusing that she of all people had made her snap. Not that such amusement would stop her from re-paying the favour.

For now at least she’d put it out of her mind. She was rather good at that. Truth be told, she suspected it was their superior compartmentalizing abilities that had made her and other Chiss so attractive to Imperial intelligence. Perhaps even more so than their excellent analytical skills. It was certainly something she’d never have guessed would become quite so important to her basic survival, back before she accepted the intelligence assignment. She’d also have never been able to work out that her lack of prior intelligence experience had made her an attractive proposition, rather than it being a mark against her.

She could almost imagine the old Keeper looking at her police file and rating her “competent enough to be useful, while inexperienced enough that counterintelligence prospects are _negligible_.” Oh there were others certainly, who had spied on the Imperials as well as for them. And each Keeper in turn had probably fed them crumbs of non-vital information to help manage them. But not her. She’d fought, spied and even died “For the Empire”. And not a single word from Csilla had she heard. Other than Saganu and a few members of the CEDF, no Chiss she’d encountered had even acknowledged her as being of the same species. Such isolation probably wasn’t going to do her mental health any favours. Vector was more understanding than she could have ever imagined a member of another species could be about the situation, and Raina tried to help with her experience of the CEDF. But it still bothered her. Still, given the many, many other bugs in the coding of her mind, the overall impact of the effect was probably negligible.

She started as she realised she’d been standing still and staring at her knife for a while now. The perimeter guards were giving her uneasy looks. They were probably working out how to politely ask if she was going to explode on them. Literally or figuratively. She tried to give them a smile, which did nothing to shift the nervous looks off their faces. Chec was rather used to such looks though. Even by Chiss standards she could hardly be called personable. Her deteriorating mental health situation hadn’t really helped such matters. To put the guards and herself at ease she started to look around the churning mess of the hub for the few individuals around whom she looked (if only by comparison) and felt normal with.

Raina had stayed topside to help manage the endless convoys between the spike and what passed for the rest of civilization on Tatooine. Partly thanks to her hostile environment experience and partly to avoid the large numbers of idiotic Sith who had chosen to come throw themselves at the rakghouls out of some selfish or sick sense of adventure or challenge. Personally Chec hoped they all got mauled to death. At least that way she wouldn’t have to deal with them infecting others. But since when did Sith ever _not_ inconvenience her? Vector had chosen to accompany her and Dr Lokin but had stayed back at the zone at her urging. The rakghouls were unpleasant to any sentient being but more so to his joiner senses. The exception to that rule and probably the happiest person on the planet right now, was the doctor himself of course, who she finally spotted standing by the medical centre. Hopefully he was at least asking before taking samples off of everything that moved.

Her relief at spotting at least one of her companions faded and turned to confusion as she approached him and noticed a rather familiar garish purple coat, clashing with an even more familiar face’s bright orange hair. The owner of said coat, face and hair was chatting to Lokin in an exceedingly animated manner. So much so that neither of them seemed to notice her approach. Though appearance meant very little with these two she knew. “Dr Lokin, Trazah. Might I ask what brings a Republic privateer here?”

“Well hey and hello to you too Chec. Careful, with a greeting that friendly people might almost think you’re happy to see me.” Trazah grinned as she passed Lokin a datapad.

“Agent. I see you and Kaliyo made it back unscathed. Though I’m sure you won’t mind if I take a few scans.” He began immediately at her quick nod. “I wasn’t aware we had a mutual acquaintance.”

“Aw, acquaintance is so damn cold. We have been saving the galaxy together after all.” It figured that the individual who had joked most of the way through Ziost could make Chec’s earlier estimate about Lokin being the cheeriest on the planet inaccurate.

“Ahh, one of the excellent individuals the agent has been working with to handle to problem of our former Emperor. I see. If you don’t mind I’d like a moment to read through these scans.” He waved at the approaching local-looking mercenary who had removed their mask to reveal a face that was startlingly green for a human. Chec wasn’t sure if it was the lighting, fungus residue, impending vomiting or exploding or a ghastly combination of factors, but they certainly looked unwell.

“I’m on it.” Trazah nodded as she bounced along to meet the patient. She kept smiling even as the human quivered and pointed at an unseemly gash on their neck.

“You do realise she works for the Republic?” Chec said as soon as the smuggler appeared occupied.

“Why no, I rather missed your unsubtle hint.” Chec tried not to scowl at the man’s sarcasm. She was extremely unused to being patronized but Lokin seemed to delight opportunities for it. “And ignoring my own extensive experiences at determining such things, she was rather upfront about her lack of Imperial allegiances.” He laughed at her expression. “You’re not going to actually warn _me_ about sensitive topics and the avoiding of them are you?”

“You hardly need it.” It was a pity she’d found Lokin before Vector. While Vector could ease her grouchiness simply with his good natured smiles, Lokin always took too much pleasure in poking at any slips in her composure. “What were you talking about then?”

"Besides the obvious? Her rather encyclopaedic knowledge of nerve gases and their cross species applications.”

Chec blinked. Now that she hadn’t been expecting. “That’s rather … specific. Anything else?”

Lokin shrugged. “Mainly the Kaas city Opera. She has some taste, but her support of the new nautolan tenor is charmingly misguided. Expanding horizons can hardly come at the cost of tonal quality in my opinion.”

“Okay so she’s not the best, you got me there.” Trazah was putting her blaster away as she re-joined them Chec noted. “But if she does well enough, then we might get more non-humans in. Think about all those new voices and vocal ranges, then tell me you think the asses boycotting her shows are justified.”

Lokin sniffed. “I didn’t say I supported such behaviour.”

“Not to interrupt.” Chec did so anyway. Given her experience of how good the two were at talking she’d probably be here forever if she didn’t “But what happened to your patient?”

“Too far along.” Trazah’s smile wavered. “Hid the bite for a while, was scared their buddies would turn on them. They’re down now.”

Chec wished she was surprised. “And the body?”

“T.H.O.R.N are keeping it for study, it’s part of the conditions for next of kin collecting your pay in the contract.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I take a quick look before them though. If you’ll both excuse me.” With that Lokin hurried off. Appropriately, the only term Chec could think of as she watched his eager stride was “ghoulish”.

Trazah leaned against a crate with a sigh. “At least someone is having fun.”

“He’s rather good at that. The whole having fun in strange places thing I mean. Sometimes it’s something to appreciate about him. Others…”

“Kinda tiring?”

Chec nodded. “Yes. Though I’m surprised you of all people would be able to see that.”

“What, cause I try to laugh at stuff?” Trazah shook her head. “My ways of keeping going aren’t everyone else’s. Even I know that.”

Chec really seemed to be making a habit out of putting her foot in it today. “I didn’t mean to imply anything.”

“Yeah, I know. Just… bad day.”

Chec couldn’t disagree with that. On top of all the death and horror her nerves were still rather shot from earlier, thanks to the Sith she’d almost stabbed in shock after he decided to completely ignore personal space while she was using her macro-binocs, and the ridiculous Jedi who’d actually leaped over her head in some bizarre attempt to beat her to an overgrown and horrendously large rakghoul. She seemed to have luck almost as bad as her luck with Sith when it came to encounters with Jedi. Though she still wasn’t sure if Ardun Koethe should count as an example for bad or good luck. Probably mostly bad. “There seem to be rather a lot of those at the moment.”

Trazah groaned. “No kidding. The things I’d do for the galaxy to take a break with this crap. But hey, if wishes were fishes we’d be back on Manaan right now.”

“Then why exactly are you here?” Chec had her suspicions but she might as well get something she could actually put on the inevitable report. Sometimes ally or not, Lana would want to know Trazah had been poking around Imperial business.

“Weeeeell you guys had a containment breach about an hour or so ago, all those nasty little raklings got out.” She nodded towards the container. “There’s a joke to be made there about trusting a company who make money out of this to put safety over profitable research but I’m not going to be the one to make it. Sith in small spaces shouldn’t shoot lightning and all that. Anyways, they messed up your medics real bad and all the official T.H.O.R.N guys are busy with official stuff. Sooo you got me instead to fill in the gap.”

“I wish I could be surprised. But I meant _here_ here. Why fight rakghouls?”

Trazah rubbed the back of her neck, but her hands couldn’t quite hide the blush there. “I’m not _fighting_ , fighting. Been up topside past few days, locals seriously need their medics right now. And since I’m resistant from a medical trial I helped out with way back on Taris, I figured why not?”

“So you’re here for humanitarian reasons?”

“For lack of a better word, yeah I guess. Ain’t the pay, if you aren’t working direct, fancy outfit and all then you’re paid crap with these guys.”

Chec smiled. Off colour humour aside Trazah could be surprisingly refreshing. It was nice to see someone doing a good thing just because they could. Sometimes it felt like there was just so much backstabbing and manipulation in the galaxy that there was no point it such simple actions. “If you’ve been working for days up there in all that chaos then I’m impressed.”

“Eeeh it’s not so bad.”

“The desperation, the fear and dread and all that don’t get to you? I almost felt like I was back on Oricon.”

Trazah squinted at her, probably trying to work out where Chec’s honesty had come from. “Well, I’m sort of used to that. Picked up all this medic stuff back in a Nar Shaada clinic.”

Apparently she’d decided to repay it in kind. Chec hadn’t seen such information mentioned in the brief and dismissive file Lana had sent her. She’d have to pass on a recommendation to have the file updated if Lana hadn’t already had it done, since she was pretty sure such a poor assessment must have come from before Lana’s appointment. If Rishi, Yavin and Ziost weren’t reason enough to review it she wasn’t sure what would be. “Then you’re definitely more experienced than I am. I’m medically certified, but have only really had to use it practically on non-civilians.” Her mind might be ringing alarm bells at the candid admission but the rest of her was enjoying herself. There were so few people Chec could just talk to without a mask. “And really my medical qualifications were more of a side benefit back when I originally got them. Cybernetics have always been my more primary interest.”

“Heh, I coulda guessed from Rishi when I had to patch you up. If my scanners weren’t faulty then you’ve got more tech in you than Theron and that’s saying something. Not that most would guess it from looking at you.”

“I’m a touch more subtle than Theron I’d say.”

Trazah laughed. “Oh like that’s hard.”

Chec found herself grinning in response. “Speaking of Theron, how is he? Has he recovered from Ziost?”

A touch of guardedness appeared on Trazah’s face. “I don’t know why you’re asking me. What am I, his mother?”

“Skipping the obvious joke about your lack of lightsaber… This is me asking Trazah. Not Intelligence.”

Trazah sighed. “Alright, alright. I forgot how good you guys were at the whole puppy dog face thing. Fine.” While Chec puzzled over the remark Trazah gestured at her ears. Understanding that at least, Chec activated her short range jammer. “He’s okay.” She grimaced. “Well okay-ish. Someone had to take the fall for that Sixth line screw up. And it _kinda_ was his fault so…”

“He’s in trouble then.” Chec had been expecting as much.

“Not the “Blargh rawr you have failed me for the last time so I’m gonna crush your trachea just cause I can!” sort of trouble. Just the um… "you’re setting some kind of record for this but damnit we still need you so time for the naughty step" trouble. That stuff.”

Chec raised an eyebrow at the Sith impression. “You don’t sound all that certain.”

“Well, he’s determined to take the fallout for this and doesn’t want to spread the blame. And I am all sort of still an independent-ish individual no matter how many times I do the Republic’s laundry for them. And I was at Ziost. And encouraged working with you guys because hey bigger problems right now. And uh, I might have mouthed off at the Supreme chancellor.”

“So you’d be an easy target for blame if your involvement becomes too public.”

“Yeah that. So other than passing on the nerve gas stuff we haven’t talked loads.”

Yes, Lokin did mention the subject.” She deactivated the jammer. There was plenty of interference on Tatooine normally, never mind this far underground and with the surface’s current problems, but if someone was monitoring then the longer the pause went on the more suspicious they’d get. Best to save it for more sensitive topics. “Something you’ve been researching I gathered?”

“Yup. Figured if the shock and drop didn’t work, maybe something a little longer lasting. Wouldn’t get his Imperial asshole-ness to vacate the premises like the shock, but I thought it’d stop him being able to use his puppets to kill others. Less death, less juice for him right?”

“Potentially. And if it takes him power to possess someone initially, then when they can’t be used…” The idea had some merit. Another thing to pass on to Lana.

“It might end up as a net loss for him, yeah. That’s the theory anyway.”

Chec thought about it some more. “So from what Lokin said you’ve considered the whole cross-species issue of them metabolising the gas differently… What about force-users? I understand they can use their powers to resist poison and other effects.”

Trazah frowned. “Yeah they could be a problem. But at least on Ziost he didn’t seem to be able to make non-force users do forcey stuff. Those puppets had to do things the old-fashioned way.”

“Maybe he can, but it’s just not an efficient use of them.” It was an exercise in frustration trying to work out what Vitiate might or might not be able to do. “There’s just so little we know.”

“Yeah…” Trazah shot her a sympathetic look. “That’s kind of why I’m surprised to see you here. Figured Lana would have something more relevant to the galaxy-munching ghost for you to do. That or maybe let you take a break. No offence but you don’t look so great.”

Chec allowed herself a sour smile. “Compared to everyone else here? I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

Chec hit the jammer again. Relevant or not, sharing assignment details with an _enemy_ probably wouldn’t be approved of. “Technically my assignment here is related to Vitiate. The timing of this outbreak, so close after Ziost? The rakghouls are rather good at spreading the death and destruction he feeds off of.”

“Huh, I didn’t think of that.” Trazah frowned. “But wouldn’t a more populated world be better for that? If he is behind it I mean. I saw Kaon back when everything went down there. Would’ve been a paradise for him.”

“The anarchy here does make it easier for an outbreak to spread than somewhere more civilized though. And with the numbers of infected fleeing the system it could get worse, even with T.H.O.R.N managing it and the Republic and Empire on full alert.” She was very thankful that no matter how much her job was awful sometimes, that the matters of galactic infection control weren’t her headaches to handle. “Regardless, I’m more here to monitor than to investigate. It might be possible for him to show up here, attracted by the death. We just don’t know enough about the range of his capabilities or how he got from Yavin to Ziost yet to take that chance.”

Trazah whistled. “Wow. Now I definitely didn't think of that.”

“Lana did.” Chec tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She certainly didn’t envy Lana’s job and she hadn’t wanted it for herself, no matter what anyone thought. That didn’t mean she trusted her though. But that was probably too open and sharing, even for this conversation.

“She is a smart one that Lana. Speaking of Sith, I don’t suppose you’ve seen a certain former wrath around?” Trazah looked genuinely worried for once. “I know she’s taking this whole former employer is actively fucking up the Empire she’s so dedicated to thing pretty hard… Again. And she didn’t look that great on Ziost either. But me calling to chat probably wouldn’t make her any more popular right now.”

“I haven’t actually. Though if it’s any comfort I also haven’t seen much in the way of backlash towards her for Vitaite’s actions so far. Her active involvement in working to take him down is probably helping, and she has Marr’s support at least.” Not that Chec particularly trusted Marr either. But as Sith went he was relatively straightforward about his intent. And she trusted that he cared about the Empire. So long as the former wrath and of course herself played their roles for the Empire, his support was as much a certainty as it could be with a Sith.

“I guess that’s something.” Trazah didn’t look particularly convinced. “It should get easier damnit. This whole worrying about family, even if they’re working for the other side thing.”

“I could look in on her. See how she’s doing. Maybe find a way to let you know.” Chec found herself offering.

Trazah’s beaming smile was bright, even by her standards. Chec found herself reminded of the sun hitting the ice and snow at dawn back on Csilla. Then promptly kicked herself for the comparison. That was more trouble she definitely didn’t need.

“Seriously? I wouldn’t have asked… But I guess I owe you one. At least for the offer. A really, really big one if you can swing it. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.” Now Chec was blushing. She really didn’t get much in the way of thanks yous in her line of work. Unless the castellan restraints counted as a thanks from the Dark council. Not many nice thanks then.

“It really isn’t.” Trazah’s face fell at something over Chec’s shoulder. Turning around Chec saw a whole team of T.H.O.R.N medics coming out of the lift shaft. “But that’s my relief I guess. Back to Anchorhead for me then.” She grabbed Chec’s hand and shook it. “It’s been fun. Surprisingly so.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it fun, but it was good to see you again.”

“That works too. Thanks again. And take care of yourself yeah?” She finally released Chec’s hand.

“I will attempt to do so.” She watched as Trazah headed for the lift, smiling as the zabrak stopped to wave one last time before disappearing. With some regret she switched the jammer back off.

“Agent.”

She nearly jumped at Vector’s sudden appearance. There were few people who could sneak up on her but Vector had a knack for it. “Vector! Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“We didn’t mean to startle you. But you did seem distracted."

“I suppose I was. Where did you get to?”

Vector smiled as he caught her hand. It was still warm from Trazah’s handshake. She found herself smiling back. He always was good at the working out the line between being discreet in public and knowing when such gestures would help anchor her. She wasn’t sure if it was a diplomat thing or a Vector thing, but she was glad of it. “The crisis command centre was under rakghoul attack and they needed assistance, which we were able to provide.”

“Seems to be a common situation today.” Chec murmured. Vector looked puzzled for a moment, but left the cryptic comment alone. He was also very good at not asking awkward questions until they had some rare moments of privacy.“You weren’t injured at all?”

He shook his head. “We are fine. But we decided it would be best save any medical examinations for you or Dr Lokin.” Another Vector talent. Proving idealism didn’t always mean naivety. She wouldn’t trust the T.H.O.R.N medics not to take too much of an interest in him either.

“That’s probably wise. I can take a quick look now, then if we can round up Kaliyo and pry Dr Lokin away from all the new testing material, we can get Raina and head back to the ship.”

“No need agent.” Dr Lokin reappeared with a very satisfied smile on him face. “I have as many samples as I could hope for. Now it is time for some hard lab time to analyse it all.” Chec looked him over, but didn’t see a case or any obvious means of transporting the samples. Honestly, it was probably best she didn’t know. Normally she’d be worried about contagion, but given Lokin’s _condition_ it seemed a bit ridiculous to protest. “Glad to see you’re still in one piece Vector.”

“As are we glad to see you too, Dr Lokin.”

“And you Agent? I see our new friend has vanished.”

Chec nodded as she began to lead Vector over to a quiet corner of the medical centre. “I’m good too. Surprisingly so.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this fic, comments and criticism are always welcome. (I'm even more rusty than usual and will probably check this in the morning to find it full of errors)


End file.
